


Prayer Words

by Trilies



Category: Bastion (Video Game)
Genre: Bonding, Fictional Religion & Theology, Gen, Having Faith, Religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 10:31:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13500060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trilies/pseuds/Trilies
Summary: A survivor, a soldier, and prayer. There’s something to be said about the quiet peace of a shrine.





	Prayer Words

Rucks disdains the Pantheon.

He’s seen too much in this world and none of it divine. Everything done has been done by the power of a person, whether for great kindness or wretched cruelty. If the Pantheon’s watching, then they have an ill sense of humor and it’s only the Mother he thinks much kindness of. Whatever reasoning is there is hidden in his own thoughts.

In contrast, the Kid doesn’t know how he feels about the Pantheon.

Caelondia worshipped the Pantheon, that much is true, especially the Wakeful Bull who adorns their doors and his shield. Yet just like he was never one much for schoolin’, he never had much time for church. All he knows of religion is the sort of thing all soldiers find themselves knowing when they have to face down a Lunkhead or settle down in the thick of the Wilds. They’re not particularly proper prayers. A hasty thanks to Lemaign under the breath, a muffled murmur to Roathus with each step into his domain, things like that.

Zulf holds on tight to the Pantheon like he’s a dying man who needs air, and you only need to see it to know it.

The Kid becomes aware of this right quick the day (is it a day?) that he sets off for the Orchard and Zulf pulls him aside to make a quiet request. Nothing grand, he makes it quite known, but if he finds anything from the shrine that’s supposed to be there, an amulet or anything like that… There’s some cultural differences when he tries to offer him the plush of Pyth he found back there, so the Kid decides he might as well go all the way. A scoff comes from Rucks’ direction when the Bastion pulls wood and stone and rope together to form the Shrine, but the Kid is watching their newest survivor. Watching the weight fall from his shoulders and the look in his eyes like he’s just come home.

Zulf excuses himself that night after their scavaged together dinner. The Kid is well aware of Rucks’ views on the Pantheon, but he’s wondering something. And when he wonders something, he goes off to find the answer. So after finishing up his own paltry meal, he gets up and follows him in. The look on Zulf’s face hints that he’s surprised anyone is joining him, hints that he’s more than used to doing his prayers alone at least lately, but then he relaxes and smiles. First proper smile the Kid’s seen out of him since the Hanging Gardens.

Kid has a lot of questions, and Zulf is more than happy to share what answers he can.

There’s no way he can know everything, of course, but there’s a love in the way that he talks about the Pantheon. Caelondia has always looked at the brighter side of the Gods most of the time, at least brighter for them, but Zulf tells the Kid that things are rarely that easy. His quiet patient voice is clear in the shrine as he explains that the Pantheon is forever about duality. Lemaign is thanked for his hope as much as he is wailed to for his despair. The Lorn Mother births life and ushers in death both. On and on. But they are never intentionally cruel. He makes that clear right away. Simply put, if you do not know one side of something, can you ever know its opposite?

One thing leads to another, talkin’ about things like that, and soon enough they’re speaking of their families. Speaking of their loved ones they’ll never see again. Funny how similar two completely different people can be, Kid finds out. A Cael Mason and an Ura diplomat. Two opposites, but they know how it feels to lose parents, to lose a love before it can truly begin.

(To his surprise, they even share the pain of having to rely on themselves when no one else could, of growing up with callused palms and shackled emotions, of knowing more swears than kids their age should’ve. “No one’s born a gentleman you know,” Zulf says and gives a dry grin that reminds the Kid of street kids he used to tussle with back in the alleyways of what was once home.)

Eventually, the Shrine becomes one of the few peaceful places in the Bastion for him. The Memorial is too sad, the Distillery a place to drink memories away, everywhere else just a reminder of what he still has to do all on his own out there. But the Shrine is quiet and peaceful, and the gods never judge. Zulf doesn’t seem to judge either. They just talk. Sometimes it’s about the past. Sometimes it’s a learning session, leading the Kid to learn more Ura customs than Cael ones when it comes to the Pantheon. He learns the proper way to kneel just by observing Zulf, and he gets taught all the appropriate gestures for each God. A loop around the wrist for Acobi’s chains, split your face for Jevel.

The Kid still isn’t entirely sure how he feels about the Pantheon, although he always finds himself gravitating towards Lemaign whenever he steps foot into the building.

But kneeling down besides Zulf for prayer starts to feel a little bit like home, and he hasn’t had that for a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this little drabble three years ago, and just remembered that I never put it on AO3. I've started to rewatch LPs of Bastion now, however, and I remembered this. This isn't meant to be romantic, but you can read into things as you like.


End file.
